Portable container adapted for liquid retention

ABSTRACT

Portable container for liquid retention includes a base having a bottom wall, upright walls attached to the bottom wall, and flaps between each adjacent pair of upright walls, and a lid pivotally attached to one of the upright walls and removably attached to at least one other upright wall, and possibly all the other upright walls. Adhesive is used to removably attach the lid to the other upright walls. Inner surfaces of the base and the lid are fluid-impermeable to define a fluid receptacle therebetween which is accessible upon detachment of the lid from the other upright wall(s). Fluid is placed into the receptacle before the lid is pivoted downward and attached to the upright walls, and thus sealed within the container for later use. The container, once opened, can be placed in front of a pet and allows the pet to drink the liquid in a natural manner.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority under 35 USC 119(e) of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/837,229 filed Aug. 11, 2006, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to a portable container capable of storing a liquid therein and more particularly to a liquid-containing container which can be used to enable animals, primarily house pets, to drink the liquid therein.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Pet owners often bring their pets along with them as they conduct daily activities. However, people typically forget to consider the needs of their pets and thus are not equipped with means to give their pets water or other liquids, such as milk for cats. Thus, to give water to their pet, they may have to cup their hands, pour water therein and then place their cupped hands close to their pet to allow the pet to drink from their cupped hands. This is a cumbersome procedure and difficult to perform.

Alternatively, they might obtain a bottle of water and tilt the bottle close to their pet's mouth to enable the pet to lap the water at the opening of the bottle. This is also very cumbersome and moreover, is somewhat of an unnatural way for the pet to drink.

A solution to enable a pet owner to easily present their pet with water or other liquids to enable the pet to drink the liquid in a natural manner is therefore desirable.

OBJECTS AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the present invention to provide a new portable container capable of retaining a liquid therein.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a new liquid-containing container which has a form adapted to allow pets to drink the liquid therein.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a new liquid-containing container which can hermetically retain a liquid therein.

In order to achieve these objects and others, a portable container for liquid retention in accordance with the invention includes a base having a bottom wall, a plurality of upright walls attached to the bottom wall, and flaps between each adjacent pair of upright walls, and a lid pivotally attached to one of the upright walls and removably attached to at least one other upright wall, and possibly all the other upright walls. Adhesive may be used to removably attach the lid to the other upright walls. Inner surfaces of the base and the lid are fluid-impermeable to thereby define a fluid-retaining receptacle therebetween. This receptacle is accessible upon detachment of the lid from the other upright wall(s). Fluid is placed into the receptacle before the lid is pivoted downward and attached to the upright walls and thus sealed within the container for later use.

In a particular use of the container for retaining liquid to be fed to animals such as house pets at a location outside of the home, the base has a larger longitudinal and transverse dimension than a height. The container, once opened, can thus be placed in front of the pet and allows the pet to drink the liquid in a natural manner.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention, together with further objects and advantages thereof, may best be understood by reference to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals identify like elements, and wherein:

FIG. 1 is a side view of a portable container in accordance with the invention;

FIG. 2 is a cross-section of the container shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a top plan view of the container in a planar, pre-folded form;

FIG. 4 is a top view of a base portion of the container during use.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Referring to the accompanying drawings wherein like reference numbers refer to the same or similar objects, FIG. 1 shows a container 10 in accordance with the invention in its folded and sealed form and FIG. 3 shows the planar sheet 12 which is folded to arrive at the container 10 as shown in FIG. 1.

Container 10 includes a base 14 having a substantially horizontal bottom wall 20 and a plurality of upright or vertical walls, namely a front wall 16, a rear wall 18 and opposed side walls 22, 24. Internal flaps 26 are provided between the front wall 16 and the side walls 22, 24 and between the rear wall 18 and the side walls 22, 24. Each flap 26 has a fold line 28 with each adjacent wall and a fold line 30 in the middle extending diagonally outward from the bottom wall 18 to provide the flaps 26 with a pair of substantially equal flap portions 32 (See FIG. 3). In the folded configuration shown in FIG. 1, the flap portions 32 are preferably attached to one another and also preferably attached to an adjacent wall to provide the base 14 with sufficient rigidity to define a liquid-containing receptacle 34 therein between the walls 16, 18, 20, 22, 24 (see FIG. 2). Alternatively, only one flap portion 32 of each flap 26 can be attached to an adjacent wall or only the flap portions 32 can be attached to one another without attachment of either flap portion 32 to an adjacent wall.

Fold lines 36 are also formed between the bottom wall 20 and each of the front, rear and side walls 16, 18, 22, 24.

Base 14 also includes retaining walls 56, each arranged alongside a respective one of the front wall 16 and side walls 22, 24. Retaining walls 56 have a generally rectangular shape and are attached along one of their longer sides to the response wall 16, 22, 24 via a fold line 58. Preferably, the length of the retaining walls 56 is selected to be substantially equal to the length of the front and side walls 16, 22, 24 so that when the container 10 is in its open position and the flaps 26 are open, only a narrow space is present between the flaps 26 and the retaining walls 56 (see FIG. 4). This prevents significant outflow of the liquid from the receptacle 34 during use.

Container 10 also includes a lid 38 pivotal relative to the base 14 and formed from the same planar sheet 12 as base 14. Lid 38 includes a main portion 40 attached to the rear wall 18 about a fold line 42, a front flap 44 attached to the main portion 40 about a fold line 46 and side flaps 48 attached to the main portion 40 about fold lines 50.

Front flap 44 and side flaps 48 each include one or more tear or score lines 52, generally parallel to the fold lines 46, 50, respectively. If multiple tear or score lines 52 are provided, they are preferably parallel to one another.

Adhesive 54 is provided to attach at least part of the front flap 44 to the front wall 16 and at least part of each side flap 48 to the respective side wall 20, 22. The part of the flaps 44, 48 to which the adhesive 54 is applied is selected to enable the lid 38 to pivot upward about the fold line 42 when the tear or score lines 52 are torn and thereby expose the receptacle 34. Thus, adhesive 54 is not applied to the flaps 44, 48 in any area between the tear or score lines 52 and the upper edges of the front wall 16 and side walls 20, 22.

Container 10 is particularly suited for use in feeding animals such as pets water or other liquids, such as milk for cats. To use container 10 for this purpose, the planar sheet 12 is first formed to have the shape shown in FIG. 3 with the appropriate cut lines, creases and combinations thereof. The planar sheet 12 is folded to form the base 14 and then liquid is placed into the receptacle 34, adhesive 54 is then applied to the flaps 44, 48 of the lid 38, or a protective coating on adhesive previously applied to the flaps 44, 48 is removed to expose the adhesive, and then the flaps 44, 48 are pressed against the respective front or side wall 16, 20, 22 of the base 14 to thereby hermetically seal the receptacle 34 with the liquid therein.

Appropriate indications of the content of the container 10 may be imprinted on the container 10, either prior to or after the container 10 is sealed, or the container 10 could be wrapped with packaging with indications of its contents. The containers 10 can be stacked on top of one another and placed into a larger box for shipment to grocery stores, supermarkets, pet stores, bodegas and the like. The container is preferably made using the same or a similar material used for milk containers and the like, and is preferably biodegradable.

The store owner would unpack the containers 10 from the shipping box and place them on a shelf. Each container 10 can then be purchased by an individual whose pet needs to drink. The pet owner would tear the tear or score lines 52 and pivot the lid 38 relative to the fold line 42 to expose the receptacle 34. The base would expand to the state shown in FIG. 4 (in the embodiment wherein the flap portions 32 are not permanently attached to the adjacent walls nor to one another). The container 10 can be placed in front of the pet, and below the pet's mouth, and they can drink from the receptacle 34 in the natural way.

An aspect of the invention for this particular use is the dimensioning of the container 10. Container 10 preferably has a broad base relative to its height as animals require a rather large surface area (of liquid) to be placed below their heads in order to drink the liquid. To this end, in a preferred embodiment of the invention, the base 14 has a length (between the side walls 20, 22) of about 6.25 inches, an approximate width (between the front and rear walls 16, 18) of about 5 inches and a height (the height of the front, rear and side walls 16, 18, 20, 22) of about 1.25 inches.

Container 10 is preferably made of a semi-rigid material which enables it to maintain its form. If the container 10 is not made in its entirety of a fluid-impermeable material, then at least the inner surfaces of the material are coated with a fluid-impermeable substance to prevent wetting of the container when a liquid is present in the receptacle 34.

While particular embodiments of the invention have been shown and described, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that changes and modifications may be made without departing from the invention in its broader aspects, and, therefore, the aim in the appended claims is to cover all such changes and modifications as fall within the true spirit and scope of the invention. For example, although a base having four sides is shown and described, i.e., a rectangular container, a container in accordance with the invention can have any number of sides, for example, a three-sided or triangular container, a five-sided or pentagonal container. A planar sheet would be cut, creased and provided with appropriate fold lines and tear or score lines to enable such a container to function for the purposes disclosed herein. In addition, while tear or score lines 52 are shown in the figures to be below the top edge of the front wall 16, side walls 20, 22 and rear wall 18, it is foreseen that the tear or score lines 52 could be positioned proximate the top edges of the front, side and rear walls 16, 20, 22, 18. 

1. A portable container for liquid retention, comprising: a base having a bottom wall, a plurality of upright walls attached to said bottom wall, and flaps between each adjacent pair of said upright walls; and a lid pivotally attached to a first one of said upright walls and removably attached to at least a second one of said upright walls, inner surfaces of said base and said lid being fluid-impermeable to thereby define a fluid receptacle therebetween, said receptacle being accessible upon detachment of said lid from said at least one second upright wall.
 2. The container of claim 1, wherein said upright walls include a front wall, a rear wall, and opposed side walls to provide said base with a rectangular shape, said lid being pivotally attached to said rear wall.
 3. The container of claim 2, wherein said lid is removably attached to said front and side walls.
 4. The container of claim 2, wherein said base further comprises retaining walls, each arranged alongside a respective one of said front and side walls
 5. The container of claim 4, wherein each of said retaining walls extends proximate said flaps alongside said respective one of said front and side walls.
 6. The container of claim 1, wherein each of said flaps includes a fold line with each adjacent upright wall and a fold line in a middle extending diagonally outward from said bottom wall to provide said flaps with a pair of substantially equal flap portions.
 7. The container of claim 6, wherein said flap portions of each of said flaps are attached to one another.
 8. The container of claim 6, wherein at least one of said flap portions of each of said flaps is attached to an adjacent one of said upright walls.
 9. The container of claim 1, further comprising fold lines between said bottom wall and each of said upright walls.
 10. The container of claim 1, wherein said base and said lid are formed from an integral sheet.
 11. The container of claim 1, wherein said lid includes a main portion attached to said first upright wall and flaps each attached to said main portion and arranged to be attached to a respective one of said second upright walls.
 12. The container of claim 11, wherein said flaps of said lid include at least one tear or score line to enable said flaps to be separated from said second upright walls.
 13. The container of claim 1, wherein said base has a larger longitudinal and transverse dimension than a height.
 14. The container of claim 1, wherein said base and said lid are made of a fluid-impermeable material.
 15. The container of claim 1 wherein said upright walls are pivotally attached to said bottom wall. 